3k non-eligible farmers gained from Centre's waiver scheme

The reaudited report of the National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (Nabard) on the Rs 52,000-crore agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme (2008), shows that loan amounts of about 3,000 farmers from Kolhapur, who owed Rs 2 lakh each, were waived when the ceiling was set at Rs 1 lakh per farmer.

| TNN | Apr 26, 2013, 02.07 AM IST

PUNE: The reaudited report of the National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (Nabard) on the Rs 52,000-crore agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme (2008), shows that loan amounts of about 3,000 farmers from Kolhapur, who owed Rs 2 lakh each, were waived when the ceiling was set at Rs 1 lakh per farmer. The cumulative amount of such non-eligible farmers stood at Rs 58 crore.

The sanctioned amount for Kolhapur district under the scheme was Rs 290 crore and the funds were meant for 89,000 farmers. The Comptroller and Auditor General has found that the amount waived in violation of the prescribed norms was Rs 112 crore and 45,000 non-eligible farmers from Kagal, Shirol and Hatkanangale tehsils benefitted from this waiver. The amount has been recovered from Kolhapur District Central Cooperative Bank, the disbursing bank.

The CAG report has stated that over 42 lakh farmers in the state were eligible for benefits worth Rs 8,951.33 crore under the scheme. The data released by Nabard states that outstanding loans worth Rs 5,376 crore taken by over 30 lakh farmers in the state were waived under the scheme. Some farmers in the state are yet to receive the benefits.

CAG released its performance audit on 'Implementation of the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme-2008' in the first week of March to make sure that the objectives of the scheme were achieved. The city-based regional office of Nabard had asked all district central cooperative banks in the state on March 18 to reaudit the documents of the beneficiaries of the waiver scheme. Nabard also asked the banks to file police cases against those who had filed fake documents.

"The union finance ministry has asked us to complete the reaudited report, which is the second step in the entire investigation. We will submit the report to Nabard's headquarters in Mumbai. It will be sent to the union finance ministry before April 30 before being tabled in Parliament," a Nabard official told TOI.

Nationally, another official said, about 8% of the Rs 52,000-crore relief scheme, was waived. "The percentage could be less in Maharashtra as the cooperative movement is strong here. In states like Jharkhand, all claims received from a district were rejected as no farmer could provide authentic documents," the official said. More details would be known when the report is released in Parliament, he added.

Disbursing banks

Crop loans are disbursed through the network of district central cooperative banks (DCC) and primary agriculture credit societies (PAC), where farmers have opened accounts. Nabard receives funds from the Union government and disburses them to the DCC banks and PACs. There are 31 DCC banks in the state and 20,800 PACs.

The Union government in 2008-09 financial year had announced a Rs 71,680-crore agricultural debt waiver and relief scheme covering 3.69 crore small and marginal farmers. It offered a one-time settlement for loans taken by 60 lakh farmers, who owned more than five acres.

Under the scheme, the union government had released Rs 52,000 crore to clear farmers' debts. Of 90,576 cases, lapses were noticed in 20,216 cases. Around Rs 164 crore was waived in violation of guidelines, said the report generated by Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

More-for-some equation

According to the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines stated in 'Production Oriented System of Lending'; the amount of loan for each crop varies. The loan amount is multiplied with the land holding of the farmer to arrive at the amount to be disbursed. But a farmer, apart from a crop loan, also avails of consumption loan or investment loan, which is disbursed to him along with the crop loan. Hence, at the end of the fiscal, the entire outstanding amount of the farmer was considered eligible for waiver by the local bank. However, the union government has clarified that waiver covers only outstanding crop loan and not the other loans. This guideline was ignored by the implementing authorities, officials said.

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